Reviewer:
I_h8_screen_names
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May 13, 2014
Subject:
The Big Combo
The name of this movie makes absolutely no sense.
Very good film. One of the best on the archive. Thanks so much for putting it here for us to see.
Cornel Wilde plays Leonard Diamond a police lt. obesessively bent on taking down mob boss, Mr. Brown (played by Richard Conte). When funding for the investigation runs short, he foots the bill from his own pocket. Altruism, protecting and serving the public are not Lt. Diamond's only motivations. As obsessed as he is to see Mr. Brown go to jail, he is just as obsessed with Mr. Brown's "lady friend", Susan Lowell (played by Jean Wallace).
Mr. Brown knows Lt. Diamond better than the Lt. knows himself. At one point Brown tells him, "Diamond, the only trouble with you is, you'd like to be me. You'd like to have my organization, my influence, my fix. You can't, it's impossible. You think it's money. It's not. It's personality. You haven't got it. You're a cop. Slow. Steady. Intelligent. With a bad temper and a gun under your arm. With a big yen for a girl you can't have. First is first and second is nobody."